Track is my field: Mark Cullen's international track and field blog featuring storytelling, commentary, and predictions and event analyses for the Olympics and World Championships. I'm writing from the 2017 World Championships in London. I'm active on twitter: @trackerati

Wednesday, August 9, 2017

Spinning in the Rain

It's pouring in London.It's Wednesday of Worlds - the midpoint of these Championships - which have been characterized by cool but generally favorable conditions for the athletes.No steam bath of Rio, no furnace of Sacramento.All was well until last night when it got cold.As a Seattle native, I am well-prepared for damp conditions, but I got chilled to the bone last evening in spite of multiple layers of clothing. The cold started in my hands and traveled up my arms into my core.Now it is wet - soaking wet.It was raining when I awoke early this morning, and soon I'll head back into it for travel to the evening session. From the Underground (subway) station to the stadium is easily a mile.I'll be able to tolerate wet shoes quite successfully. My coaching mantra in Seattle: rain days are practice days.But this, most unfortunately, is a day of finals in the women's shot put, and qualifying in the men's hammer.Not a good day to be spinning in a ring.The women's long jumpers, too, will encounter a possibly slippery takeoff board.In conditions like these everyone hesitates just a touch, and that hesitation wreaks havoc. Athletes become understandably cautious.Caution changes everything when throwing caution to the wind is what we're here for.Dwight Stones - 1976 - Montreal. 3rd in the high jump final in the drenching rain when the covering of the stadium was not finished on time, he set the world record in good conditions just days later in Philadelphia.In a statistical and geographic oddity, Stones had set the world record also in Philadelphia on June 5th. For Stones, world records were bookends to Olympic bronze.Ask Stones if weather conditions made a difference - in his career, in his life.I understand that everyone is competing under equal conditions, and that athletes should prepare for all. But how well can anyone prepare for drenching rain? Or, for that matter, blistering heat: 111F/44C, as it was at US Nationals in Sacramento, CA this year?Is it time for us to consider covered stadiums as a requirement for World Championship sites?Did I mention that the 2019 World Championships are in Doha, Qatar?

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I'm active on Twitter every evening at Worlds. I'm live-tweeting the throws for the Throwholics website, but will chime in with other updates. I'll also post a daily piece here, whether a summary of events or a reflection on a single aspect of these championships.